The present invention refers to a new late harvesting variety of triploid pigmented mandarin which will hereinafter be denominated as the ‘Top Mandarin Seedless.’ The ‘Top Mandarin Seedless’ tree produces commercially seedless mandarin fruit, bearing in late January through to February in the citrus areas of Sicily, Italy. The ‘Top Mandarin Seedless’ trees are triploids, having three sets of chromosomes. The trees bear from year three and have consistent year-to-year bearing habits, the fruit has acceptable rind thickness, acid-sugar ratios and color, and has an average juice content of 40-50% at harvest.
In the development of new commercial fruit varieties, specific characteristics provide a premium on those fruit varieties that mature late or late in the growing season. For a new fruit variety to be a commercial success, the fruit must be of good size, good color, and also have good holding/storage as well as advantageous harvest times and shipping characteristics. In addition, the date of maturing is preferably different from other similar fruit. This new invention meets all of the aforementioned criteria and therefore would be of commercial appeal to the consumer.
The Top Mandarin seedless variety is a triploid sexual hybrid. Polyploidy in citrus is well known (pp. 191-193, Speigel-Roy & Goldschmidt, 1996). Citrus and related genera are typically diploidic and have two sets of 9 chromosomes (2n=18). Triploids, tetrapoid and hexaploids exist naturally but occur in low percentages in the population. Citrus triploids are cytologically recognizable by the presence of an additional set of chromosomes. In some cases, triploids are also morphologically recognizable.